This invention pertains to methods for cutting glass. This invention also pertains to methods for manufacturing magnetic disks comprising glass substrates. This invention also pertains to methods for making glass substrates used in the manufacture of magnetic disks. However, the invention has broad applications, both in the magnetic disk industry and outside the disk industry.
It is known in the art to use glass as a substrate material to manufacture magnetic disks. During substrate manufacturing, disk-shaped substrates are cut out of a sheet or square of glass. This is typically accomplished by providing a sheet 1 of glass (FIG. 1), and cutting sheet 1 into squares 2 of glass. Thereafter, glass substrates 3 are cut out of squares 2. Unfortunately, it is notoriously difficult to cut and shape glass due to its brittle nature. Glass is typically cut by scribing and breaking. (Scribing is accomplished using either diamond or laser scribing. The scribe marks are shown in FIG. 1 as dotted lines.) After scribing and breaking, the edges of the glass substrate have the following problems.
1. It is difficult or impossible to control the exact position of the point at which the glass breaks. Although the break point will originate at the scribe mark, the break will tend to propagate along portions of the glass where defects or voids exist. Because of this, the location of the edge of the resulting glass substrate is imprecise.
2. Breaking the glass substrate leaves irregular and sharp edges that are unaesthetic, fragile, and makes the substrate hazardous to handle.
3. After scribing and breaking, the glass material at the edge of the substrate contains defects from which cracks can propagate, thereby damaging or destroying the substrate or a disk manufactured from the substrate. The poor edge condition thus weakens the substrate.
4. Chips from the sharp edges of the glass can strike or lodge on the surface of the substrate and cause damage that must be removed by expensive polishing processes.
FIG. 2 is a cross section photograph showing the edge damage that can result from mechanically scribing and breaking a glass substrate. As can be seen, FIG. 2 shows chipping and irregular propagation of the crack formed during breaking. Accordingly, after such scribing and breaking, it is necessary to grind and then polish the edges of the glass. Such polishing adds a large expense to the disk manufacturing process, thereby tending to make glass substrates less practical.
During a method in accordance with the invention, a laser beam is applied to a glass workpiece and then the workpiece is etched. The etch rate of the portion of the workpiece exposed to the laser is greater than the etch rate of other portions of the workpiece. Thus, during etching, a groove is formed in the portion of the workpiece that has been exposed to the laser beam. After etching, the workpiece is separated into separate pieces along the groove. The edge of the separate pieces is smoother and more precisely controlled than workpieces cut using conventional scribing and breaking processes. Accordingly, less or no edge polishing is required after a process in accordance with the invention compared to prior art scribing and breaking processes.
In one embodiment, etching is accomplished with an acidic solution comprising fluoride ions. For example, the solution can be an aqueous solution comprising ammonium bifluoride and sulfuric acid. Alternatively, the solution can comprise phosphoric acid and ammonium bifluoride. In yet another embodiment, the solution is an HF solution.
As mentioned above, the etching solution preferentially attacks the portion of the glass where the laser has been applied. (It is not certain why the portion of the glass that has been exposed to the laser preferentially etches. It is believed that this portion of the glass undergoes some kind of structure change, e.g., the glass becomes less dense and is therefore easier to etch. It might also be that the increase in etch rate is due to residual stresses in the portion of the glass exposed to the laser.)
In one embodiment, the glass is in the form of a flat sheet. (This sheet can have any appropriate shape, e.g. a rectangle.) A laser beam is applied to both sides of the sheet. Thereafter, the sheet is subjected to the above-mentioned etchant, which forms grooves where the sheet has been exposed to the laser. The glass sheet is then broken at the grooves. As mentioned above, the edges of the resulting pieces of glass are smoother and more precisely positioned than the edges of a glass sheet subjected to a prior art scribe and break process.
In one embodiment, the glass is cut into substrates used in the manufacture of magnetic disks. The substrates are then processed into magnetic disks, e.g. by depositing appropriate layers on the substrate. In one embodiment, an underlayer, a magnetic layer and a protective overcoat are formed on one or both sides of the substrate, e.g. by a vacuum deposition process such as sputtering.
In another embodiment of the invention, instead of using glass, other silica containing materials are used, e.g. glass ceramic or crystalline silica such as quartz. In other embodiments, other materials are used that have the characteristic that after exposure to a laser beam they etch faster. (When using these other materials, other appropriate etchants can be used.) Regions of these materials typically expand when exposed to the laser beam and remain that way upon cooling.
In another embodiment, instead of using a laser, other forms of concentrated radiant energy are used, e.g. highly focused, intense light, infrared radiation, or other form of electromagnetic radiation.